Monday, June 10, 2013

Andrew DiDonato: Life in a Gambino Crew

Andrew DiDonato: Life in a Gambino Crew

I
live in Los Angeles, the city where everyone talks about who they know
and how they are connected. I always hear “So and so is in the Mafia,”
or “He was with some guys.” I roll my eyes and brace for what will
come. What do I hear? I hear that they were with the Gambino's... and
wait... before you can even guess.... they were with John Gotti and now
Junior Gotti. That makes me laugh because its always the Gambino's and
the Gotti's. How come nobody is with the Bonnano's or Colombo's?

So, what was it really like in a Gambino Crew during the Gotti Reign?

My
friend Andrew DiDonato was (actually) there and lived it. Andrew was a
wild kid who knew what he wanted to do in life. He was a second
generation Wiseguy, it ran in his family.

Andrew became a street guy by the time he was 17 years old. He was with Nicky Corozzo
who was a member of the Gambino Family. It was a different time and
Nicky ran his crew from a Social Club with the Knights of Columbus off
Pacific Street.

When
Andrew and his friends first started hanging around they did not kick
money to Nicky every month. It was in the form of a gift, they would
kick him money on special occasions, Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday,
Thanks etc.

He
was soon working for Nicky at one of his betting parlours and then he
found cars. Andrew, like a lot of the kids who grew up in Brooklyn and
Queens, knew guys who chopped cars. He partnered up with a Master Car
thief who could steal anything in seconds. Some cars they would just
steal and drop, pick up 300.00 and get another. Others were exotics
like Porsche, Ferrari or Maserati's and these they would get 3,000 or
more for each. Then they got their own spot and they would steal cars
and chop them and sell the parts. They stole everyday of the week so the
money was steady and good.

One
night they had just finished chopping a car and all that was left was a
frame, wheels and an engine. Andrew drove it out of their spot and
just when he came to an intersection what was in front of him? A NYPD
Patrol car. Andrew was sitting on a box driving a car with a pair of
vise grips and a screw driver. He blew past them and they turned around
and gave chase but he was not stopping. He blew through two red lights
and lost them, leaving the used-to-be car on the side of the road and
taking off on foot.

They
were soon dropping off envelopes monthly to Nicky's new Social Club off
51st and Ave M. It was known as the Dugout because you had to step
down three steps and it was in a basement with one window.

Andrew found himself in prison and this is where the story will deviate from what Hollywood and people like to portray.

Nobody
from the crew helped him. Some real long time friends helped but none
of his so-called “brothers.” Why? Greed. He was going away and could
not bring in any cash so why help him. Some guys in the crew even
promised to help out but as soon as he was away they did nothing. "It
opened my eyes. I started to see them for what they were." This is what
Andrew explained. He was angry, pissed off at all the guys, so when he
saw Nicky after getting out of jail, he brought it up. Nicky told him
to forget about it that he told the guys to back off because they had
other things to do. That is when he saw Nicky in a new light.

He
wanted to get released from Nicky and the Gambino's and go instead to
Wild Bill Cutolo's crew in the Colombo Family. Nicky told him "You were
born here, you will die here." Andrew was never Nicky’s favorite and he
knew that this crew was a dead end for him.

Nicky had his favorite and that was Michael (Mikey Y) Yannotti so Andrew knew he was on the shit list.

The
movies and TV shows like to portray a Mob Boss as an angry screaming
guy. This is the farthest from the truth. Any street guy worth
anything cannot be degraded or made to look like a pussy. He is a man
and no matter who is disrespectful you must deal with it. I’ve talked
before about how noone raises their voice to a boss, but it goes both
ways. There are a lot of egos in the mob, and there is mutual respect
required from all. A Boss cannot act like they do in the movies or he
will not be long for this world, not when you are among seasoned killers
and thieves.

Andrew
started hanging out with Wild Bill’s crew more and more, because he
felt he fit in more there than with Nicky. However, he then had a
falling out with Wild Bill over some issues with his son Billy who was
one of Andrew’s best friends. Wild Bill told Andrew he better hope his
friend (Nicky) would stand for him in a sit down. Nicky did stand for
him in the sit down, and the drama calmed down for the time.

Meanwhile,
Andrew had other problems on the horizon. He was trying to get back on
his feet financially by pulling armed robberies of drug dealers and
shaking other dealers down wiith his friend Robert Arena. In the midst
of these robberies they crossed paths with some of Danny Cutia’s people.
Danny was a Luchese Capo who sat on the Ruling panel of that family.
Andrew was working with people he knew all his life, he didnt care that
someone was with someone else he needed to pay his bills.

This
did not sit well with Nicky. Nicky began to worry that he wasn’t seeing
his proper share of Andrew’s dealings. Andrew and Robert Arena hit a
big weed dealer and ran into problems. This is where it gets real and
you can understand how the family works. Nicky was only too happy to
get cash from Andrew, then he would go to the dealers or the guys they
were with who Andrew had robbed and broker a deal where Andrew would
give back what he had left. So Nicky made money on both ends and Andrew
was left with little. The Rules! They only apply when it is in a top
guy like Nicky's best interest. Andrew and Robert had just pulled off
one of their drug robberies. This time they had jacked a really
connected person without realizing it. Andrew was called in to talk to
Nicky. Nicky was upset and wanted them to return everything to the
person they had robbed. Andrew went in to the meeting not intending to
listen. Then Nicky told Andrew that he believed his best friend and
partner, Robert was responsible for the murder of a Gambino crew member
named Tough Tony. Not long after that meeting, Andrew was called in by
Mikey Y. Mikey Y told him to be on stand by because they had to do a
“piece of work.” Meanwhile, Robert Arena had been called by Danny
Cutelo’s son-in-law Jon Baudanza for a Luchese crew street meeting. Jon
told him to stay away from Andrew because Andrew was going to be
“whacked.” Of course, Robert, as any good best friend would do, went
straight to Andrew and told him the news. Andrew’s reply was, “That
mutt Jon Baudanza couldn’t fucking touch me.”

The
next night in the Mill Basin area of Brooklyn, Robert Arena and a
friend Thomas Maranga were in Robert’s car stopped at an intersection
when they were ambushed by Mikey Y and company (sans Andrew). Both
Robert and Thomas were killed. Thomas was just in the wrong place at
the wrong time, it was Robert the guys were after. Later, Andrew was
informed that Robert was whacked. Because of the way “the rules” are,
there was nothing Andrew could do about the murder of his best friend.
This really turned the police heat up on Andrew, because it was known
they had been best friends. The police wanted to question Andrew, and
at this point he was still on parole.

One
Monday morning his parole officer called him down to the parole office.
When ANdrew arrived, he saw two FBI agents and he followed them in the
building where they stopped at the front desk in front of him. They informed the receptionist that they were there to see Andrew’s very own
parole officer. Andrew then knew he was about to be arrested. So he
fled the parole offices and became a fugitive. This brings us to
Andrew’s new career of being a bank robber with the Genovese crew. He
had to go on the lam since everyone knew who his crew was, so instead he
reconnected with some old prison buddies who happened to be in the
Genovese crew.

Now
most people think that bank robbery is as simple as walking into a bank
with a gun and asking for money. To be done right, it became a
full-time job for Andrew and his new crew. Stay tuned for more next
week.

2 comments:

What a story. I am Wild Bill's son and I am here to solidify Andrew's accounts. I am so happy we are still here today and I am PROUD to say that both Andrew and Kenji are my BEST FRIENDS today who I TRUST W MY LIFE AS WELL AS MY FAMILY'S. Today this's BULLSHIT politics of that SCUMBAG life are behind us. together we form FIve fingers collectively and which we NOW call " The Fist". Together we will stop at NOTHING to school the younger generations about " The Life" and they are blown away at the treachery that is the MAKE UP of that life. God Bless my brothers that are in my life today....and MY BEST TO THE GUYS STILL OUT THERE THAT STILL UPHOLD HONEST HONOR AND LOYALTY. Remember, TAKE CARE OF YOUR LOVED ONES "first"...because NO ONE WILL BE THERE FOR YOU IN YOUR TIME OF NEED...BUT BLOOD.... I am proud To say that they ARE my BLOOD. I love u guys, STAY SAFE AND I WILL SEE YOU GUYZ SOON...;))

Parasitic Italian trash , who dare speak of integrity and honor . Insects on a dung heap have more honor . I devoted my life to running you down Like the dogs you are , like my ancestors the Tuetonic hordes who sacked and burned Rome , I ran over you all , still bouncing a night stick off a WOPS head after all these years . Wherever you short little Degos are my big Anglo Saxon foot will be there ready to dust your backsides . You know what a grease ball and a cue ball have In common , the harder you hit em the more English you get out of them . No ones impressed and none of us are scared . With love your eternal enemy in blue . Danny Moran